The Enduring Legacies of Dorothy Bolden, Ella Mae Wade Brayboy, and Pearlie Dove’S Community Leadership in Atlanta, 1964-2015
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Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University History Dissertations Department of History 8-8-2017 “Still Here”; The Enduring Legacies Of Dorothy Bolden, Ella Mae Wade Brayboy, And Pearlie Dove’s Community Leadership In Atlanta, 1964-2015 Christy C. Garrison Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_diss Recommended Citation Garrison, Christy C., "“Still Here”; The Enduring Legacies Of Dorothy Bolden, Ella Mae Wade Brayboy, And Pearlie Dove’s Community Leadership In Atlanta, 1964-2015." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2017. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_diss/61 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of History at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “STILL HERE”; THE ENDURING LEGACIES OF DOROTHY BOLDEN, ELLA MAE WADE BRAYBOY, AND PEARLIE DOVE’S COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP IN ATLANTA, 1964-2015 by CHRISTY CAROLINE GARRISON Under the Direction of Jacqueline A. Rouse, PhD ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the enduring leadership of community activists Dorothy Bolden, Ella Mae Wade Brayboy, and Pearlie Dove from 1964 until 2015. Brayboy was one of the first African-American Deputy Voter Registrars in the state of Georgia, Bolden founded the National Domestic Workers Union and Dove was the first woman to head the department of education at Clark College. This dissertation inserts Dorothy Bolden, Ella Mae Wade Brayboy, and Pearlie Dove into the classic Civil Rights Movement narrative by framing their community advocacy as equal to the efforts of Atlanta’s more well-known African-American leaders. This dissertation presents Bolden, Brayboy, and Dove as career-oriented professional women who were also politically savvy community activists. These three women acquired a power base that allowed them to found organizations, create programming, and develop projects dedicated to empowering Atlanta’s black community. These women achieved a level of influence typically associated with the wealthy or the political prominent. Because the three women were grassroots organizers, this study contends that the implications of their activism have been obscured because of gender, race, and class. This study seeks to foreground Bolden, Brayboy, and Dove’s efforts in Atlanta’s Movement narrative. In this dissertation, assessments of Bolden, Brayboy, and Dove’s professional contributions as acts of protest on behalf of the black community are used to undergird a critical intervention; first, their work refutes previous ideology centering the efficacy of Movement leadership (as a social movement) as grounded in mass mobilization. Secondly, their leadership was oppositional to the standard portraiture of Movement leadership as male, ministerial, and middle-class. Finally, the women’s professional and activist emphases on economic uplift, education, and enfranchisement illustrate evidence of how sustained acts of protest, led by local leadership, impacted the community. Because there is considerably less literature focused on the historical significance of black women acquiring political power outside of elected office, this study seeks to establish the women as politically significant local leadership. INDEX WORDS: Black Women, Civil Rights Movement, African-Americans, Political Activism, Grassroots, Southern “STILL HERE”; THE ENDURING LEGACIES OF DOROTHY BOLDEN, ELLA MAE WADE BRAYBOY, AND PEARLIE DOVE’S COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP IN ATLANTA, GEORGIA, 1964-2015 by CHRISTY CAROLINE GARRISON A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2017 Copyright by Christy C. Garrison Harrison 2017 “STILL HERE”; THE ENDURING LEGACIES OF DOROTHY BOLDEN, ELLA MAE WADE BRAYBOY, AND PEARLIE DOVE’S COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP IN ATLANTA, GEORGIA,1964-2015 by CHRISTY C. GARRISON Committee Chair: Jacqueline A. Rouse Committee: Ian C. Fletcher Kathryn E. Wilson Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University August 2017 iv DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my late beloved mother, Mrs. Evelyn Marie Francis Garrison and supportive father, Mr. Sidney Charles Garrison, Jr. Mère, I miss you with all of my heart. All that I am is because of you and Daddy. Thank you, my sweet Nya, for being patient with Mommy while I was writing, this is for you. For the best big brother, Craig C. Garrison, thank you for everything this past year. To my patient and supportive family, Demetria and Claude Brumfield, Frankie and Ed Hale, Paul and Katherine Wilson, Michael Thompson and Kayo Matsumoto, and my dear grandmother Mrs. Amanda P. Bowers, thank you for your unconditional love, energy, inspiration, and financial support. To my Ummi and the Chikes, thank you for being my Atlanta family. To Georgianne Thomas and Alvelyn Sanders, this is for you because you told me daily that I was meant to do two things, complete this doctorate and become a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. You made sure I did both. Finally, this dissertation is dedicated to the memory of Mrs. Dorothy Bolden Thompson, Mrs. Ella Mae Wade Brayboy, and Dr. Pearlie Craft Dove. I am because you were. Thank you God. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to greatly thank my advisors, Jacqueline A. Rouse, Ian C. Fletcher, and Kathryn E. Wilson in the Georgia State University (GSU) Department of History for their unmitigated support of my topic. I am most appreciative of your engaged and thoughtful analysis of my research. Jacqueline Rouse and Ian Fletcher provided their expertise as both my professors and committee members. Kathryn Wilson’s experience in gender studies was of great assistance in this study of gendered leadership. I would additionally like to thank Julie Kubala and the Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) for providing exploration of the intersectional research approach through the WGSS Certificate program, and GSU faculty and staff members Akinyele Umoja, Paula Sorrell, Carolyn Whiters, and Robin Jackson for suggestions and encouragement. To Atlanta Metropolitan State College’s Division of Social Sciences, thank you for welcoming me to the Trailblazers as I completed matriculation. Your support and leadership, especially Vance Gray and Harry Asana Akoh, as I completed my dissertation, was an instrumental part of my completing this process. To Clark Atlanta University’s department of African-Americans Studies, Africana Women’s Studies, and History, many thanks to Stephanie Y. Evans and Claudia Combs. Even in the beginning stages of the writing process, your availability, despite your own projects, to provide inspiration and critique was invaluable. I owe a sincere debt of gratitude to Janice Sikes Rogers, Karen Jefferson, and the archivists at the Auburn Avenue Research Library for African-American Culture, the Manuscripts and Archival Special Collections at Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center, the Pullen Library at Georgia State Library, and the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL) at Emory University. vi There are not enough words to thank my mentors, consultants and confidants who provided assistance in research, editing, and analysis and holding me up: Kenja Foster-McCray, Charmayne Patterson, Natanya Duncan, Aubrey Underwood, and Tammy Greer. To my sister- friends, thank you for holding me down, you printed, proofed, baby-sat for, fed, motivated, listened to me and refused to let me let go: Kemba White Dupree, Tonya Jackson, Chanell Stewart, Michelle Dorn, Natalie Hope, Leisa Stafford and Nubiyn Matamalaki Mosi Mzekewe. Thank you Senior Pastor Yvette D. Massey, Sonja Natasha Brown, Mildred Gunn, and my Central United Methodist Church family for the prayers, kind words, telephone calls and never- ending support you have offered me on this dissertation journey. Finally, thank you to Mrs. Brayboy’s daughters, Mrs. Joyce Jones, Mrs. Eleanor Proctor, and Mrs. Wilma Bailey for opening your homes and sharing your recollections with me. Your contributions were immeasurably important to the completion of this dissertation. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................ V PREFACE .......................................................................................................................... 1 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 6 1.1 Purpose of the Study ........................................................................................ 10 1.2 Literature Review .............................................................................................. 26 1.3 Methodology ...................................................................................................... 32 2 LIFE IN “BLACK ATLANTA,” 1870-1960 .......................................................... 43 2.1 Political Setbacks and Progress ....................................................................... 46 2.2 Economic Segregation in Atlanta..................................................................... 50 2.3 Atlanta and Jim Crow......................................................................................